SJRA, Willis receive $178M in water loans

Published 6:00 pm, Friday, February 3, 2012

The San Jacinto River Authority and city of Willis received more than $178 million in state loans Thursday to finance their respective water supply projects.

The Texas Water Development Board authorized $175 million for initial construction of the SJRA’s Groundwater Reduction Plan.

Meanwhile, the city of Willis received the remaining $3.15 million from the TWDB’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to drill two wells into the Catahoula Aquifer, and lessen the city’s dependance on the Gulf Coast Aquifer, according to Willis City Manager Hector Forestier.

Because the Gulf Coast Aquifer can no longer be used as a sole source of water in Montgomery County, the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District has mandated a 30 percent countywide reduction in groundwater usage by Jan. 1, 2016.

Approximately 140 of the large-volume groundwater users in Montgomery County (annual pumpage of 10 million gallons) participate in the GRP. The SJRA plan calls for pumping surface water from Lake Conroe, and installing pipelines to Conroe, The Woodlands and selected areas in South County.

“It’s the next phase of financing,” said Jace Houston, SJRA deputy manager. “We were scheduled to apply for these bonds about five to six months from now, but they became available much sooner than expected at a very low interest rate (2 percent). We couldn’t wait.”

The loan is SJRA’s fourth, totaling $356 million, Houston said. An original TWDB loan of $21 million covered initial planning and engineering of the GRP. Sixty-seven million dollars in loans issued last year paid for more engineering and land acquisition, he said.

“We should start final design later this fall,” Houston said.

Last year, Willis approached the SJRA about installing two wells in the Catahoula Aquifer. By obtaining its own funding Thursday through the TWDB, Willis achieved a “win-win” situation for all parties, Forestier said.

The wells will provide “much-needed” data for every water entity in the county, he said.

By over-converting 100 percent of the city’s water usage to an alternative water source, it provides an approximate annual reduction in pumpage of 244 million gallons of water from the Jasper Aquifer,

“Since the SJRA GRP had approved taking the (financial) risk for drilling the Catahoula wells to acquire the data anyway, the risk management portion of the proposal approved by the SJRA board is still in effect, and that’s what makes this plan viable for the city of Willis,” Forestier said.

The SJRA will repay its loans through the monthly pumpage fees it assesses to the GRP participants. However, since Willis is paying for the cost of its project, the city will charge its residents a pumpage fee.